Rail-joint lock.



P. H. ANTRIM.

`RAIL JOINT LOCK.. APPLICATION man ocT. 31. 1516-.

Patent@ sept. 4,1917.

QN NN ww UNITED sTATEs PATENT oEEioE.

rETER n. ANTEIM, or OETING, WASHINGTON.

RAIL-JOINT (Loox.

Application led October 31, 1916.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, PETER I-I. ANTRIM, a citizen of the United States, residing at Orting, in the county of Pierce and State of vWashington, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Rail-Joint Locks, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to devices for adjustably securing a plurality of bodies together, more particularly for securing clamp or iish plates to the rails in railway joints, and has for one of its objects to provide a device of this character whereby the members may be rigidly coupled, and in which provision is made for taking up slack, or adapting the device to bodies of varying thicknesses without structural change in the bodies.

The improved device may be employed for connecting the parts of various structures, and it is not desired therefore to limit the invention in any manner in this respect, but

for the purpose of illustration the improved device is shown applied to the members of a railway rail joint, and in the drawings thus employed Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a railway rail joint with the improvement applied.

Fig. 2 is a transverse section on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section on the line .3*3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a detached perspective view of the wedge shaped holdingmember.

Fig. 5 is a detached perspective view from the outside of the locking member.

Fig. 6 is a detached perspective view of the locking member viewed from the inside.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the following descriptionand indicated in all the views of the drawings by the same reference characters.

A section of a railway rail is represented at 10 and the clamp or iish plates at 11. Extending through the clamp plates and likewise through the web of the rail is a holding bolt 12 having a head 13 at one end and barbed at the other end, the barbed portion including a tapered head 14 and a reduced intermediate neck portion 15, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

Bearing against the clamp member 11 which is located next to the barbed end of the bolt is a wedge shaped holding member Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept-4, 1917.

Serial No. 128,757.

represented as a whole at 16 and provided with a longitudinally directed slot 17, the edges of the member 16 at each side of the slot being provided with a plurality of teeth like portions indicated at 18. The inner bearing face of the member 16 is slightly curved, as shown at 19 at its thinner end to facilitate the action of the member against the adjacent clamp member ll and to prevent the member 16 from biting into the member 11, when driven into its holding position. Applied to the outer face of the member 16 is a locking member comprising a body portion 20 and longitudinal guide f ribs 21, the guide ribs bearing upon the upper and lower faces of the sides of the member 16, as shown more clearly in Fig. 2. At one end the locking member is provided with a transverse rib 22 adapted to engage an opposite pair of the teeth 18. Formed through the body 20 is a-longitudinally directed slot with the major portion of its length corresponding inl width to the diameter of the neck portion 15 of the bolt, as indicated at 23 in Fig. 1, and enlarged at one end, as shown at 24 to correspond to the head portion 14 of the bolt. By this means the body 20 may be engaged by the enlarged portion 24 of its slot over the Ahead portion 14 of the bolt until the main portion 23 of the slot is opposite the reduced portion 15 of the bolt, when the body 2O may be moved endwise to cause the reduced portion 15 to enter the slot. By this means the member 20 may be locked in position upon the bolt. At the end of the slot in the member 20 opposite to the enlarged terminal 23 a socket like depression 25 is formed around the terminal of the slot 23 to receive the inner -end of the head 14, as shown more clearly in Fig. 3.

By this arrangement it will be obvious that when the parts 16-20 are arranged in position relative to the bolt 12 and the clamp member 11, 'an effectual key device is produced whereby the parts 10 and 11 may be irmly compressed by applying longitudinal strain by the blows of a hammer or like instrumentagainst the larger end of the member 16, which movement will cause the teeth 18 of the member 16 to be engaged with the stop rib 22 of the member 20 and thus lock the member 16I from retrograde movement, or from working loose under the severe jarring strains to which the rails are subjected when in use. In event of the member 16 working loose it can be readily tightened by a few blows of a hammer or like instrument. 1

It will be noted that the inner or bearing face of the body 2O is slightly inclined at the end toward the larger end of the member 16, as shown at 26 in Figs. 3 and 6. This cutaway portion of the member 2O provides means whereby the member 20 may be re leased when the member 16 is to be removed, which is accomplished 'by inserting a suitable implement within the exposed portion of the slot 17 at the thinner end of the member 16 and prying the rib 22 loose from the teeth 18 with which it'is engaged, the cutaway portion 26 permitting this movement of the member 20. This action releases the member 1G which may be detached by a few blows of a hammer applied to its thinner end.

The improved device is simple in construction, can be inexpensively manufactured, preferably of steel, and applied without structural change of any of the various clamp or fish plates employed in railway rail joints.

I-Iaving thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is 1. In a device of the class described, a bolt adapted to engage through a structure and having a reduced portion spaced from the free end, a wedge member slotted to receive said bolt and bearing against said structure, and a locking member having a slot to receive the bolt, said slot being reduced at one end to engage the reduced portion of the bolt and with a socket at the inner terminal of the reduced portion of the slot to receive the portion of the bolt which extends in advance of the reduced portion thereof.

2. In a device of the class described-` a bolt adapted to engage through a structure and having a reduced portion spaced from the free end, a wedge member slotted to receive said bolt and bearing against the structure, and having a plurality of teeth in spaced relation and a locking member slotted to receive said bolt with a rib to engage in the teeth of the wedge member one at a time, one portion of the slot of the locking member being reduced to receive the reduced portion of the bolt and with a socket at the inner terminal of the reduced portion of the slot to receive the part of the bolt which extends externally of the reduced portion thereof.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

PETER H. ANTRIM. [L 5.]

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Yatents. Washington, D. C. 

